Can't sleep at night: ISRO scientist

Space scientist A Bhaskaranarayana, one of the four former ISRO scientists blacklisted from government jobs on the controversial Antrix-Devas deal, today said the action has left him feeling miserable and worried over his standing in society.

Space scientist A Bhaskaranarayana, one of the four former ISRO scientists blacklisted from government jobs on the controversial Antrix-Devas deal, today said the action has left him feeling miserable and worried over his standing in society.

"We feel miserable. We have worked for 37 years..average nine to ten hours a day including Sundays, and one day we have been given such a notice (barring them from government jobs)", an anguished Bhaskaranarayana, a former Scientific Secretary at ISRO, told PTI here.

"Such an urgency and emergency only for four of us? We are not the only ones in the country", he said.

"I am not doing any government work right now but in society what's our value?", he asked. "We feel miserable, don't get sleep in the night".

Asked why he thought the four had been "singled out" for the action, Bhaskaranarayana said: "Four of us were occupying some positions important at that time which are relating to this area (Antrix-Devas deal).

On whether he saw a conspiracy against the four or somebody behind the move, he said he does not want to guess at all. "It's very difficult to say. People like us who are scientists, we don't know politics. We do our work and get out", he said.

Bhaskaranarayana had quit his visiting professorship (after retirement from ISRO), six months before the two-year tenure was to come to an end, following the change of guard at the space agency with K Radhakrishnan taking over from G Madhavan Nair as Chairman.

"I had my own personal reasons (to quit before completion). When Chairman changes, some important positions have to change", he said, seeking to blame Radhakrishnan indirectly.

Former ISRO Chief Nair, who has also been barred from occupying government posts, had accused Radhakrishnan of being responsible for the punitive action against him and the three others because of a "personal agenda."